Could the Justice Department make former President Donald Trump an offer he can’t refuse?
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow seems to think they might.
After his arraignment Tuesday in a federal courthouse in Miami, Trump could be facing up to 400 years in jail if he’s convicted of the 37 counts associated with the mishandling of classified documents.
Maddow’s speculation about a plea deal reveals the left’s high hopes for a resolution to this political prosecution: Either Trump drops out of the 2024 presidential race, or he dies in jail.
Speaking to Joy Reid on Wednesday’s edition of “The ReidOut,” Maddow constructed what she believes could be a viable escape plan for the embattled former president.
“What would Donald Trump do to avoid jail time? I guess — I literally suppose — that he would do anything,” Maddow said for the setup.
“And if it’s going to come to him avoiding jail time, now that this indictment exists, he’s either going to have to win in court defending yourself against these charges — by saying, ‘Yes, I did it” is not a great defense — so how else can you avoid jail time?” she continued.
“Well, you can plea in exchange for leniency,” Maddow declared, acknowledging that it might still mean jail time in certain scenarios.
“What can he offer prosecutors other than his confession, his cooperation? I mean, this is a crime he could only commit because he was in high public office.”
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She went on to cite the way former Vice President Spiro Agnew left office while facing tax evasion charges in 1973 as his “get out of jail free card.”
This bargain with the Department of Justice ensured that he would not be there as a successor to Richard Nixon should the Watergate scandal take out the then-president (like Trump, it’s arguable that Nixon’s eventual resignation was the aim of the government’s investigation all along).
“In order to keep Agnew out, they traded him essentially jail time for his resignation,” Maddow recalled.
“I’m not saying that’s what the DOJ should agree to,” she said in Trump’s case.
“I’m not saying that’s what Trump should try for, or his defense should offer it. I’m not even saying it would be good or bad for the country,” Maddow claimed.
“I’m just saying, the one other time we’ve dealt with this as a country, that’s how we did it.”
Journalist Tom Elliot tweeted the clip reiterating Maddow’s assessment of the DOJ’s possible master plan. “Rachel @Maddow suggests Trump can cop a plea to avoid jail, offering to drop out of the 2024 race,” he wrote.
Rachel @Maddow suggests Trump can cop a plea to avoid jail, offering to drop out of the 2024 race pic.twitter.com/mwN55g7ia9
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 15, 2023
This isn’t the first time that Maddow trotted out this scenario, according to Fox News. The MSNBC host called Trump’s withdrawal from the race in a plea deal a “political solution to this criminal problem” during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.”
Although Maddow doesn’t have any official sway in the matter, she’s saying the quiet part out loud about this whole legal mess.
After all, the government didn’t care so much when it was President Joe Biden, former Vice President Mike Pence, or even twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton being careless with America’s secrets.
But now that the charges pertain to Biden’s most formidable 2024 adversary, it’s being treated as the crime of the century.
The left’s burning hatred for Trump is matched only by their fear that he may beat the age-addled and unpopular Biden in 2024 — and they’re becoming desperate to make sure that doesn’t happen.
The left has figured out that the best scenario to get Trump out of the way — short of making him sleep with the fishes — is to corner him into dropping out of the race altogether.
This is a last-ditch effort to save Biden from certain defeat, and they have no problem being as ruthless and unflinching as mobsters to get it done.
